Amalgamations Group
Amalgamations Group, founded in the year 1938, is an Indian business conglomerate based out of Chennai. The Group has companies operating across diverse industries. The Group has an interest in Manufacturing, Plantations, Trading, and Distribution and Services.[12] It is among India's top Light Engineering Conglomerates.[12] The group has 47 companies under its fold which operate 50 manufacturing plants. The most notable companies of the group are Tractor and Farm Equipment Limited (Better known as TAFE), Simpsons & Company, T Stanes & Co, AMCO Batteries, Higginbotham's, and Addisons Paints.
The group's history traces back to the year 1935 when Mr. Sivasailam Anantharamakrishnan joined the Simpsons Group, a British-owned South Indian business conglomerate, as Secretary in 1935. In the year 1938, he was one of the three directors on the board when Simpsons formed a holding company.[13] It was converted into a public limited company the next year, which later became Amalgamations Group in 1941. In the 1940s Anantharamakrishnan lead the rapid expansion of the group, even though he became its Chairman only in the year 1953.[13]
The Amalgamations Group after acquiring 100-year-old Simpsons in 1941, started acquiring several prominent old companies of South India like Higginbotham's, Associated Printers, Associated Publishers, Addison & Co., SRVS, George Oakes, T.Stanes, The United Nilgiri Tea Estates and Stanes Amalgamated Estates.[14][15] From the 1950s onward the group's auto component manufacturing companies have supplied products to all the major OEM suppliers, helping them in reducing dependence on imports. The Group companies have formed several alliances with international partners to boost their technological capabilities. These alliances along with internal innovation, R & D and continuous zeal for New Product Development have led to group companies gaining a good share in the "After Sales Market" as well.